The son of an accused mobster of a legendary mobster named “Quack Quack” was denied bail Tuesday in the sensational case involving NBA-linked rigged card games – amid fears he will return to his witness-tampering methods.
Lawyers for Angelo Ruggiero Jr., 53, had requested a $5 million bond secured by his family and friends during the notorious Gambino mobster's bail hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
But Judge Joseph Marutollo agreed with prosecutors that Ruggiero's story foreshadowed what he would do if released: tamper with a witness.
Marutollo noted that Ruggiero, while incarcerated in a previous case, had threatened to kill a witness.
“He made his hand in the shape of a gun and said, 'You know how we take care of rats up close and personal,'” the judge said of the son of notorious gangster Angelo Ruggiero Sr., whose motorized horns earned him the nickname “Quack Quack.”
Ruggiero sat sullenly in a beige jail outfit as Marutollo refused bail.
Shortly after, co-defendant Curtis Meeks, 41, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
Meeks, a former boxer who allegedly provided cheating technology used in rigged card games, was given $250,000 bail.
The federal government pushed for Meeks to no longer be able to play – a potential problem for the professional player.
“I'm playing in the World Series of Poker. If (the government) doesn't want me to play, that's no problem,” Meeks said in court.
The judge ultimately ruled that Meeks will have to notify pretrial services of any gambling and travel.
The back-to-back hearings stem from explosive federal indictments last week that revealed alleged Mafia sports gambling and poker schemes linked to NBA players.
Ruggiero played on cheating poker teams at 80 Washington Ave., an upscale neighborhood in Greenwich Village, authorities said.
The townhouse was one of two locations in Manhattan where high-stakes poker games were hosted by four of the city's most powerful crime families, including the Gambinos, authorities said.
The scammers allegedly used NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, 49, head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, to act as “face cards” to lure high rollers into the big-money rigged games.
An alleged victim who, along with his poker buddies, was allegedly scammed out of $1 million has claimed a former NFL player also acted as leader during his losing game.
Authorities said “Quack Quack's” son not only took his father's full name Ruggiero, but also his role as a mobster.
The elder Ruggiero was close friends with notorious Gambino boss John Gotti and ended up becoming an unwitting patsy in the 1980s federal investigation into the Mafia family when he was caught on wiretaps chatting incriminatingly.
Angelo Ruggiero Jr. is a made man in the Gambino family, with a checkered criminal record that includes a conviction for threatening to kill a witness while he was still in prison, federal authorities detailed in a court filing last week.
“Ultimately, while with the witness in their cell, the defendant made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at the witness's head, and stated, in summary, 'you know how we take care of rats, we get up close and personal,'” court documents state.
Ruggiero's attorney, James Frocarro, argued that his client should be released on bail because all of the other alleged gangsters charged in the NBA scheme have been allowed out and they, too, have been charged with committing serious crimes.
“Did I offer too much to secure his release? said Frocarro. “He has five million reasons to comply.”
When the judge pressed Ruggiero's gesture with his gun, Frocarro accused the government of deliberately putting the cooperating witness in his cell to drive Ruggiero crazy.
“Did they expect him to kiss her? He didn't lay a hand on him!” said Frocarro.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/28/us-news/gambino-mobster-in-nba-gambling-scandal-denied-bail-over-fears-hed-resort-to-his-witness-tampering-methods/
